I'm passionate about criminal justice reform, especially correctional education. There’s not much you can do about most things when you’re on the inside, but you can choose how to spend your time--something you’ve got plenty of. Incarceration, as strange as it sounds, offers a unique opportunity to focus on, and build, a new future. That’s exactly what I did.I knew I needed to change my life, but learned that prisoners were precluded from the Pell Grant, due to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. It wasn’t until my father stepped in that I was able to enroll in the distance learning degree program at Penn State, where I earned degrees in Business Administration and Organizational Leadership.I also discovered that a large number of my fellow prisoners wanted to pursue an education as well. They were certainly as motivated and hardworking as I was, but they lacked the resources to realize their ambitions. Inspired by their passion and moved by their struggles, I founded the PSF in 2006, whose mission is to help incarcerated students become successful members of their communities by providing college, vocational, and technical education, as well as mentoring services. Over the next eight years, I received thousands of letters, applications, and essays from incarcerated women and men from around the country, and learned how truly massive, and yet deeply personal the problem is--a population so diverse and full of potential, is left virtually ignored and unsupported.The PSF has supported 132 Prison Scholars--to great success. Many of our scholars have obtained academic certificates, seven of our students have earned associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, and two of our Prison Scholars are positioned to earn their MBAs through distance education. Of the 84 Prison Scholars who have been released, only three have been re-arrested, giving the PSF a recidivism rate of 4%, which compares quite favorably to 68% nationally.